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Dots show the cities where the Care19 app has been downloaded. The app keeps a list of a person's locations to help the state complete contact tracing if the person tests positive for the coronavirus.(Photo: Lisa Kaczke/Argus Leader)

The contact tracing app that the states of both North Dakota and South Dakota have urged citizens to use has updated its privacy policy after a security review showed it was sharing user location data with a third party.

The app (if given permission) tracks the user's location, and if they are later diagnosed with COVID-19, the app can help the state health department determine other people who may have been in contact with the infected person through the use of an anonymous code.

The Care19 privacy policy previously stated that "This location data is private to you and is stored securely on ProudCrowd, LLC servers. It will not be shared with anyone including government entities or third parties, unless you consent or ProudCrowd is compelled under federal regulations."

Tim Brookins, the app's creator, told The Washington Post that the app uses Foursquare to turn location data into the names of nearby places and businesses, saying that "The Care19 application user interface clearly calls out the usage of Foursquare on our ‘Nearby Places’ screen, per the terms of our Foursquare agreement," although he said the app's privacy policy would be amended to make this more clear.

Jennifer Yu, a spokeswoman for Foursquare, also said in the article that the company does "not use the data in any way and it is promptly discarded."

In a Friday morning press conference, state health secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon said that Noem had stated that use of the app was voluntary, and that the data was not being stored by Foursquare and therefore the app's privacy policy had not been violated.

"We will be continuing to promote the Care19 app," she said.

As of Friday morning, the app's privacy policy had been amended, stating that "Third parties that we use (Foursquare, Google Firebase and Bugfender) may have temporary access to aspects of your data for their specific data processing tasks. However, they will not collect this data in a form that allows themselves or others to access or otherwise use this data."